By JOEL PADGETT
CONNECTING FAITH AND LIFE
One of the Diocese of Evansville’s initiatives for our Eucharistic Renewal, which is now underway, is to have traveling Eucharistic miracle exhibits, from this year’s feast of Corpus Christi (which was June 19), until next year’s feast of Corpus Christi (June 11, 2023). These will periodically be present at every parish, Catholic school, the Catholic Center and Catholic Charities. In fact, some of you may have already seen one of these exhibits at your parish. However, even if you haven’t seen one yet, you’ll get a chance to see one soon.
There are a total of nine Eucharistic miracle exhibits that are currently traveling around our diocese. Every location will be hosting a different exhibit once every eight weeks. This will give everyone a chance to see and learn about at least 48 different Eucharistic miracles over the course of the year. It’s quite amazing to see the variety of miracles—not only the different types of Eucharistic miracles, but also the variety of locations and historical contexts. All of the panels in the nine traveling exhibits were selected from an even larger international exhibition that was designed and created by Blessed Carlo Acutis.
In fact, one of the aspects that I find most amazing about the exhibition—other than the miracles themselves—is precisely that Blessed Carlo Acutis devised and planned it. Blessed Carlo was born in 1991. (I would be willing to wager that almost everyone reading this was alive in 1991. In addition, I would bet that most of us probably were not newborns in 1991.) He passed away about 16 years ago, in Milan, Italy, in 2006. If you were to think back for a moment, you could probably even remember a number of things that you did in 2006. In other words, Blessed Carlo Acutis is a contemporary, someone of our times. He grew up with the same things that a lot of our children or grandchildren have grown up with. For me, that contains an incredible message of hope: by the grace of God, holiness is possible, even today!
Perhaps even more fascinating is just how young he was when he put the exhibit together. He was only 15 when he passed away from leukemia. When you’re contemplating the exhibits, let that sink in. He began devising and planning an exhibition on Eucharistic miracles when he was less than 15. He actually had the idea back in 2002, when he was only 11! Our youth are capable of great things! That is one of the reasons why it is so important to bring them up in the faith, to nurture the gift of faith that they received at baptism. They are capable of doing so many awesome things for God and for others! Yes, they may very well do something amazing followed up in the very next moment by something incredibly “not so amazing,” but stick with them – just like God always, always sticks with us. Our youth need the example of great Catholic witnesses, but they also need those who will accompany them and help them to become the amazing witnesses of faith that God calls them to be.
We truly hope that these exhibits will be an excellent way to help us keep our focus on the Eucharistic Renewal and to help us grow in our faith, love and appreciation for the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. If you’d like to learn more about the Eucharistic Renewal or see the schedule for when your parish will be hosting an exhibit, please visit: www.evdio.org/eucharistic-renewal.